


like to see you try

by imagines



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, First Kisses, M/M, Platonic Flirting, Set in Season 1, Sheith Month 2018, Suggestive humor, Truth or Dare, a lot of kiss dares that is, keith pov, no established relationships, no one else takes anything seriously, not-so-platonic flirting, oh no he’s hot, oh no she’s hot, pidge takes truth or dare very seriously, sleepover, which becomes dare or dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 10:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15531927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imagines/pseuds/imagines
Summary: So, they still kind of suck at this forming-Voltron thing sometimes. Lance suggests a classic sleepover to help them bond. Some feelings get dragged kicking and screaming into the light. (For Sheith Month Day 29: Honesty)—“Guys, hey,” Shiro soothes. “Lance, I think a sleepover sounds like a nice idea.”“Thankyou, Shiro—”“Oh my god,” Pidge groans.And then Shiro seals his fate. “But you’re not making me play truth or dare.”Keith winces; he can practically hear Pidge’s ears perk up.“You are welcome to believe that if you want,” Pidge says, with the most angelic smile Keith has ever seen on her face. It’s more than a little frightening.





	like to see you try

They’re so tired. They can form Voltron on command now, which is great, but it’s _exhausting_ , and they’re still bickering over the comms half the time. Allura gets so sick of hearing them fighting with each other when they’re supposed to be training that she locks them in the lounge with an entire case of juicepouches. They are under orders not to come out until they _figure it out_.

Lance is the one who suggests the idea, which somehow doesn’t surprise Keith one bit: “It could be like a team-building exercise!”

“A team building exercise from _middle school_.” Pidge pushes her glasses up her nose with the air of one who disdained such things even in middle school.

“I’m sorry, _Pidge_ , but some of us don’t want to act all stoic all the time,” Lance huffs. “You’re really gonna stand there in your _lion slippers_ and tell me you don’t wanna stay up late playing games? You think you’re too old to have fun?”

“I have fun!”

“Guys, hey,” Shiro soothes. “Lance, I think a sleepover sounds like a nice idea.”

“ _Thank_ you, Shiro—”

“Oh my god,” Pidge groans.

And then Shiro seals his fate. “But you’re not making me play truth or dare.”

Keith winces; he can practically hear Pidge’s ears perk up.

“You are welcome to believe that if you want,” Pidge says, with the most angelic smile Keith has ever seen on her face. It’s more than a little frightening.

* * *

“So, the rules of truth or dare,” Pidge announces to the circle of weary paladins on the floor around her. “Select your victim—I mean your _target_ —”

“That’s not any better,” Keith says.

“I’m only striving for accuracy, Keith. Now, moving on, you’ll ask that person that age-old question, that most time-honored of challenges—”

“What, ‘truth or dare’?” Hunk asks.

Pidge elbows him. “Don’t spoil it!”

“Ow! Pidge, we’ve all played this before!”

Shiro clears his throat. It’s a tiny sound, yet loud in the large open space of the lounge.

“—Haven’t we?” Hunk slowly turns to face Shiro, who is seated on Hunk’s right side.

“I got into the Garrison _really_ early,” Shiro mutters. “Was kinda busy, you know, _flying things_.”

Hunk pats Shiro’s shoulder with an encouraging smile that is only a fraction less terrifying than Pidge’s. “It’s fine, dude. It’s so easy to play. You’ll be a natural.”

Pidge folds her arms. “As I was saying, yes, Hunk, that is the hallowed inquiry. The respondent will select either of the two options, and then they must either answer a question, usually of a…personal nature, or complete a dare of the first player’s choosing. Then the respondent picks a new person to ask, and you keep going that way until you all fall asleep. Or get bored, but usually the first thing happens before that.”

“Basically, it’s an excuse to ask your friends about embarrassing shit in their life, or make them _do_ embarrassing shit while you watch,” Keith simplifies.

“I mean, I’ve heard of how the game works.” Shiro appears to be gritting his teeth, but he hasn’t left the circle, so apparently he’s determined to see this through.

“I’ll go first,” Pidge says. “Hunk. Truth or dare?”

“Daaa—uh, truth!” Hunk yelps. “No, d—”

“No takebacks,” Pidge informs him. “Hmm. What is the grossest thing you’ve ever had in your mouth?”

“Lance’s shampoo,” Hunk answers, almost before Pidge has finished speaking. “ _Disgusting_. Ugh.”

Pidge wrinkles her nose. “Why the _hell_ did you—”

“No! Nope. No follow-up questions. Lance, truth or dare!”

“Dare me, buddy. Do your worst.”

“Okay, kiss Keith.”

“ _Hey_!” Keith squawks. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

Pidge actually looks startled, even though this is all her fault to begin with. “Isn’t it a little early to break out the kiss dares?”

“It is never too early,” Hunk proclaims. “And Keith, of course you get a say!”

It’s all part of the game, Keith tells himself. “Oh my god. Whatever. Lance, just get it over with.”

Lance crawls across the floor to reach Keith, leaning in closer, and closer—

Keith screws his eyes shut. It’ll just be a peck, right? He can handle this. They will all laugh about it later. He—

Lance drags his tongue up Keith’s cheek and ducks the arm Keith flings out, howling with laughter as he scoots back to his place between Pidge and Hunk. “Gotcha!” he crows. “You really thought I was gonna do it, didn’t you!”

“Of course I didn’t,” Keith lies. “You’d never have the nerve.”

“Do you guys hear this slander?” Lance points a shaking finger at Keith. “This man thinks I’m a coward about kissing!”

Keith narrows his eyes. Lance is sitting a lot closer to Pidge than is strictly necessary. Huh. “So prove it,” he says. “Truth or dare, man?”

“Dare! Obviously!”

“I dare you,” Keith says slowly, watching Pidge’s face, “to kiss Pidge.”

Pidge remains stone-faced. “What the fuck, Keith.”

“You can say no if you want,” Keith reminds her.

Pidge may not be reacting, but Lance sure looks flushed. Lance sure isn’t looking at Pidge _at all_ right now.

“It’s fine,” Pidge says, flippant. “I don’t mind. We’re bros, right, Lance?”

“Yeah, fine,” Lance echoes. “Bros.” But he still doesn’t move.

Keith wonders if he should maybe go over there and shove Lance at Pidge. He sneaks a glance at Shiro: Shiro looks to be on the verge of laughter himself, lips pinched tight and twitching, little crinkles at the corners of his eyes. It’s nice, seeing him having fun. _Really_ nice.

“Okay,” Lance says. “Okay, I’m gonna do it. Pidge, you ready?”

“Hurry the hell up and kiss me,” Pidge says, closing her eyes and tilting her face up. “Got a game to play here.”

“Okay,” Lance says, _again_. “I—okay.” He glances around at the circle of expectant paladins. No salvation appears. Keith can see him swallow hard, and then he—brave, brave Lance—puts one hand on Pidge’s jaw and presses his mouth to hers in a kiss that isn’t particularly extended or exciting, but also lasts quite a bit longer than a peck. Then he jolts backward, away from her, and goes back to _not looking at her_.

Keith has never actually seen Pidge blush before. She does it in stages: the tips of her ears first, then the tops of her cheeks, followed by the bridge of her nose. Suddenly, she draws her knees up to her chest and hides her face in them. “Okay there, Pidge?” Keith asks, carefully keeping amusement out of his voice. It’s cute, how she’s reacting, but he would prefer to embarrass Lance (who deserves it) and not her.

“Fine!” she squeaks, muffled. “Everything’s great!” After another beat, she comes up for air. “So that happened,” she says, bumping her shoulder against Lance’s. “Gross, right?”

“Just awful,” Lance replies distantly. “We should never do that again.”

“Ugh, I know. What a terrible idea, _Keith_.”

“You started this,” Keith says. “I’m just saying.”

Hunk coughs. “Were we, uh...still playing?”

“Yes!” Pidge yells. “Whose turn even is it?”

“Mine, I think,” Lance says. “So. Uh. Moving on. Hunk, truth or dare?”

Hunk is shaking his head slowly. “As _if_ I’d take a dare from any of you. _Ever_. It’s truth, Lance. Hit me.”

“We’ve known each other since _grade school_!” Lance exclaims, aghast. “Don’t you trust me?”

“Not as far as I can throw you. And, as you know, I can throw you pretty far.”

“When I make it easy for you,” Lance mutters.

Hunk pats Lance’s knee. “I can throw you even when you _don’t_ make it easy for me, and you know it.”

“Jerk,” Lance says fondly. “Well, since you’re so sure you’re safe if you pick truth: which of the people in this room do you think is the most attractive?”

“Shiro,” Hunk says, without a pause.

Lance blinks at him. “You don’t maybe have to think about it or something?”

“No, I do not have to think about it. Both subjectively and objectively, Shiro is the actual hottest person in this room.” Hunk shrugs. “I’m not afraid of the truth.”

“You—huh.” Lance strokes his chin, frowning. “You know, you have a point. He is a magnificently gorgeous man, and you have impeccable taste.”

“Thank you, Lance.”

Shiro, Keith notices, has turned an alarming shade of red. “Uh, you okay?” Keith asks him.

“Just fine,” Shiro says. “Everything’s fine! How are you?”

“…Also fine,” Keith says, but he can’t resist a little bit of teasing. “Not as fine as you, though.”

“Keith, I swear to god—”

“Hey, Shiro,” Hunk interrupts.

Oh no.

“Yes?” Shiro asks, voice remarkably level.

“Truth…or…dare?”

Shiro opens his mouth. Closes it. Folds his hands in his lap, considering his options. They are not exactly great options. Keith knows Shiro’s comfortable with honesty, but there’s probably a lot of stuff tucked into the back of his mind he doesn’t wanna talk about. “Dare,” Shiro answers finally.

Hunk smiles as if he’s laying eyes on a newborn puppy, the first tiny green tree leaves in spring, or something else so sweet and innocent he can hardly believe his luck. “Shiro, our leader, our commander, it is with great joy in my heart that I dare you…to seduce Keith.”

“Why?” Keith asks, raising his eyes to the heavens. Well, to the ceiling anyway. Since they’re on a spaceship, they’re sort of _surrounded_ by the heavens. “Why do you all have it out for me today?”

“ _I_ don’t have it out for you,” Pidge says.

“And I appreciate you for that, Pidge, truly.” Keith looks back at Shiro, ready to crack a joke, do a little playful flirting, and get on with their day, but…

The expression on Shiro’s face.

 _Wow_.

“You don’t have to,” Keith says to Shiro. “It’s just a game.”

“Do you not want me to? It’s okay if you don’t.”

Shiro’s looking spooked as hell, is the thing, but he also isn’t saying no. It’s interesting, and what’s also interesting is the explosion of heat in Keith’s stomach. He realizes, with a jolt like a brick to the skull, that he’s curious what Shiro’s idea of seducing him would involve. “No, I don’t mind at all, I just want _you_ to feel comfortable.”

“Then I guess I should be asking you—” Shiro laughs, a small and slightly frantic noise— “if…you _want_ me to do it?”

The others are watching as if Shiro and Keith are the next big teen drama on primetime TV. Keith kind of doesn’t give a fuck anymore. “I’d like to see you try,” he tells Shiro, without the slightest hint of sarcasm.

Shiro’s tongue flicks out between his lips, and a little video clip of _that_ is gonna play in Keith’s imagination a few dozen times, that’s for sure. “Okay, well,” he starts, and then has to take a couple of deep breaths to steady himself. “Keith. You’re on my mind more often than you know. When you’re around, I can’t take my eyes off you. You contain galaxies, and I want to explore every one of them. I can’t believe fate granted me a friend as loyal, as passionate, as affectionate, and as beautiful as you. I don’t think I deserve you. But I’m glad you’re with me.”

Keith’s ears are ringing; all background noise fades to a low hum. In this instant, nothing matters but the light in Shiro’s eyes and the love spilling from his lips, as easy as rainfall and as devastating as a flash flood.

“Damn, Shiro,” Hunk says. “I think Keith’s having a heart attack.”

Keith is not having a heart attack. Keith would like Shiro to keep talking; he would like Shiro to pull him into his arms; he would like to hurry up and finish bonding with the paladins so he and Shiro can go somewhere _private_ and talk about this. And…do some other things too, maybe.

“I’m not just saying this stuff to get to you,” Shiro murmurs. “It’s all true. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Keith whispers back, and a hysterical giggle bursts out of his throat. “My best friend just confessed his love to me, that’s all, at least—oh god, _is_ that what you were doing? It sounded like you were doing that? If I’m wrong, let’s please just forget I ever—”

“You’re not wrong.” Shiro reaches for Keith’s hand and squeezes it hard. “Do you think I could kiss you?”

“No one dared you to,” Keith says faintly.

Shiro grins. “Actually, it’s just part of the seduction.”

“Oh. Well, in that case…” Keith leans toward Shiro, and that’s all it takes.

Shiro kisses like he does everything else: methodically, thoroughly, and with his full attention. Keith’s galaxies are getting explored, all right, and by the time Shiro lets him up for air, he’s a mess of black holes and supernovae, gravity out of control and setting him on a collision course with Shiro.

“Jeez, guys,” Hunk says, awed. “Save some for the rest of us, huh?”

“This is truth or dare, not Seven Minutes in Heaven!” Lance protests, reminding Keith there was an audience for…all that. He’s having trouble caring, though.

“Right,” Shiro says. “We can play that at the next sleepover.”

“You and Pidge can go first,” Keith suggests.

“I know where you sleep,” Pidge says, ever so placidly.

* * *

Keith is the last one left awake, thoughts heavy on his mind. All his tossing and turning winds his sleeping bag into a knot around his body, and now he’s too warm, and his mouth is dry, but they left the juicepacks on the other side of the room, and if he gets up, he’ll _definitely_ never fall asleep.

“Hey, Keith,” Shiro says from beside him.

Keith rolls over to face him. “Did I wake you? I’m sorry.”

“No, I can’t sleep either. I was just thinking—you never got a turn earlier.”

“Trust me, that’s the last thing keeping me up right now.”

“Still…doesn’t seem fair. You want to go one more round with me?”

“If it’ll make you happy, sure.”

“Heh. It would. Truth or dare, Keith?”

Truth would be all right, Keith thinks. He’s not afraid of anything Shiro might want to ask him, but that’s the case all the time. Keith has always been more of a doer than a thinker, but when it comes to Shiro, _doing_ can get nervewracking. He’s had Shiro back in his life (in his arms) for only a few weeks, and already things are so much different than they were before Shiro went away. The former patterns of action no longer apply. What he wants is for Shiro to give him an idea of what he should do—of what he’s _allowed_ to do. “Dare,” he says, ready for anything.

Shiro’s gaze is so soft, Keith almost can’t stand to look him in the eye. “Dare you to kiss me,” Shiro whispers.

There’s no one looking now, no one to heckle or cheer. Keith wriggles closer to Shiro, still tangled in his sleeping bag, and Shiro’s arm comes up and drapes over Keith’s waist as if this is all perfectly normal.

“Hi,” Shiro says.

“Hi yourself.” If Keith thinks too much before he acts, he might think himself right out of it. So he doesn’t think, just nestles himself right up against Shiro, and he kisses Shiro’s soft, sweet mouth, until Shiro makes a noise and Keith lets slip a laugh. “What was that?” he asks, poking Shiro in the chest. “You say something?”

Shiro tucks his face into Keith’s shoulder, sighing dramatically. “I know where you sleep,” he growls, but it doesn’t sound like much of a threat coming from him.

“Is that so?” Keith presses one more kiss to the top of Shiro’s head. There are so many places he’d like to kiss Shiro. “How about you come visit me sometime?”

“Guys?” Hunk groans, from over by Lance and Pidge. “It’s all so very precious, what you’re doing over there, but could you flirt slightly more quietly? Some of us are having lovely dreams and would like to go back to them.”

“Just say you’re dreaming about Shiro,” Lance says. “Like everyone _else_ in the room.”

“I’m not dreaming about Shiro,” Pidge says.

Great, Keith thinks. The gang’s all here.

“Of course not, Pidge,” Hunk says. “You’re probably too busy dreaming about Lance. It’s okay, I understand, happens to me too.”

“Awww,” Lance says. “Thanks, Hunk. You’re quite the stunner yourself.”

“Oh my god,” Keith moans. “ _Please_.”

“Gosh, that sounded a little _personal_ , do you need some time alone with Shiro?”

“Lance, I will end you,” Keith snarls.

“Hey!” Lance gasps.“That doesn’t sound very team-buildy at all!”

“Hey, Lance?” Pidge says.

“Yes, Pidge, my bro, my dude, what can I do for you?”

“When we go home, do you wanna hang out sometime?”

The look on Lance’s face is as if he’s been informed they are having an astrophysics pop quiz today, and he’d stayed up all night studying extraterrestrial bioluminescence instead. That is: his range of knowledge is both limited and highly specific, and is entirely unrelated to the problem which he has encountered. His tongue flicks over his lips. “What kind of hanging out did you have in mind?”

“You know,” Pidge says. “Just…” She shrugs instead of finishing.

More awkward silence passes. Keith is pretty sure he hears Shiro snicker. He can’t take this anymore. “Will one of you _please_ ask the other out and save the rest of us from our suffering?!” Oof, that sounded a little harsh. It’ll just have to do.

Lance and Pidge stare at him, scandalized. “That’s not—” Lance says.

“We don’t—” Pidge tries.

Keith can stare back just as well, thanks. “It is and you do.”

“Well!” Lance claps his hands together. “I think we’ve all bonded really, really fantastically, what’s everyone else think? Maybe we could, uh, call Allura? Get out of here a little early?”

“ _Yes_ ,” chorus four voices.

Lance is incredibly convincing when he needs to be, and they’re released from the lounge into the dim light of the corridors. They shuffle in a group to their sleeping quarters, and Lance doesn’t make a peep about the fact that Shiro passes up his own room to follow Keith to his. In exchange, Keith does not comment on the fact that Lance has stopped walking long before _his_ own room, and is instead standing with Pidge as she opens the door to hers.

“What a night, huh?” Shiro asks, when Keith gets the door shut and locked behind them.

“You’re telling me.” Keith glances at his bed. They hadn’t really talked about this; it had been more of a wordless conversation on the way to their rooms, everything said with raised eyebrows and shrugged shoulders and tiny smiles. Not much of a chance to hash out the details. “So…”

Shiro, as usual, says whatever needs saying without hesitation. “Would you like me to sleep on the floor? Or next to you?”

“If I wanted either of us to sleep on the floor, we could have stayed in the lounge. So yes, you can sleep in my bed.” Keith flashes Shiro half a grin, and he thoroughly enjoys the pink flush that comes over Shiro’s cheeks. Shiro deserves good things, like comfort and tenderness and love. The revelation hits him: Keith can give Shiro all those things, and Shiro wants those things from him. He takes Shiro’s hand and leads him to the bed, and they lie down together, the air between them hot with a promise they’re both too tired to act on right now. But in the morning…oh, in the morning, Keith is going to kiss Shiro everywhere and every way he deserves to be kissed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> \- Thanks, love, and many blown kisses to [Liv](https://softlysheith.tumblr.com/) for general hand-holding plus coming up with the concept of Shiro noticing Keith didn't get a turn himself. <3<3<3
> 
> \- [Come say hi @ tumblr!!](https://belovedsheith.tumblr.com/)


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